(Patent) Sony is playing with the idea to make a compact translucent camera! + new type of translucent mirror
Sony just filed a new patent which discloses a new translucent camera design. It looks like Sony wants to create a sort of NEX-Translucent hybrid camera 
UPDATE: The patent clearly shows a A-mount camera (not a NEX E-mount).
Sony wants to get rid of the electronic viewfinder to reduce the size of the new SLT camera. The new camera looks like a NEX camera although it will be certainly be much thicker because of the semitransparent mirror.
Let’s read the official patent description:
“In recent single-lens reflex digital cameras, a display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is disposed on the back of a camera body such that an image inputted to an image pickup device can be viewed using the display. For example, there has been proposed a single-lens reflex digital camera, having no optical viewfinder, that allows a user to take photographs while the user checks an image using a display disposed on the back of a camera body. In such a structure, an autofocus detecting device is disposed at an upper position in the camera body and light reflected by a light-beam splitting mirror can be guided to the autofocus detecting device. However, when light-beam splitting mirrors disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 4 are used, the light quantity of transmitted light guided to an image sensor is increased compared with that of reflected light to improve the quality of photographed images. As a result, the light quantity of photographing light guided to an autofocus detecting device becomes insufficient.“….”The present invention can provide a light-weight small-size digital camera.”
And there is one more interesting news. Depending on the light wavelength the mirror reflects more or less light: “A sufficient quantity of subject light can be guided to an autofocus detecting device by adjusting the reflectivity to light with a wavelength to which the autofocus detecting device has high sensitivity to 25% or more and 35% or less, which can solve a problem in that light quantity becomes insufficient for autofocus detecting“…”When autofocus auxiliary light is used to perform photographing on a subject having a low contrast or in a dark place, the returned light out of the autofocus auxiliary light can be reflected at a reflectivity higher than that of light having a different wavelength and guided to the autofocus detecting device“.
As usual keep in mind that patents are not real products (for now)!
hanugro
3 years ago |Nice, I would buy this instead of NEX for companion camera. Then I might go to FF dSLR all the way when the price is right. So nice I have not splash the cash on NEX.
emopunk
3 years ago |All of this could be emplyed in an A-mount camera, from what it seems. Right?
boda foto barcelona
3 years ago |nice news, I hope it can bridge the gap between p&s cameras and dslr’s. Although, I like a VF above all other things!
timo
3 years ago |hmm A-mount +FF would be sweet :p
Sky_walker
3 years ago |Hm… NEX 7 v.2? Release in 2012?
acolyte
3 years ago |Huh? When did v.1 come out? :p
Colamango
3 years ago |2011
acolyte
3 years ago |For all you know plans may change :p
alex
3 years ago |translucent isn´t the right thing to say.. if it would be totally translucent, then you could not even make one pic with it..instead you would see one giant big white blob on your lcd-screen..
Alex
3 years ago |Translucent has more than one meaning.
acolyte
3 years ago |allowing light to pass through diffusely; “translucent amber”; “semitransparent curtains at the windows” says first hit in Google
john
3 years ago |UUUUUMMMMM
So what mount is this?
Can’t be Nex if it is much thicker. Registration distance would not be the same.
A-Mount we already have SLT.
So is this just an A-Mount with just no EVF?
Surely not a 3rd mount!
Sky_walker
3 years ago |More like a… miniature A-mount SLT camera. Something much smaller than A55, very portable.
Looks interesting though I don’t see much of a point in something like this when we’ll have NEX7.
Colamango
3 years ago |NEX 7
john
3 years ago |Cant be E-mount if there is a mirror in place.
Registration distance between rear element and sensor would be too big!
Manxtt12
3 years ago |could this be the Sony version of X100?
Andrew
3 years ago |If Sony made this…
1. Alpha Mount
2. Full Frame (multi-aspect ratio sensor if possible)
3. Kept the dimensions of the body as compaact as possible
4. Made the rear LCD as large as dimensions allow
…This would be the best tripod/studio/landscape/architecture camera ever…at least for 35mm format cameras.
I already own an a850 which is a great handling camera, but I can’t help but think a camera like this patent shows would be a much more elegant option for tripod work. It would be smaller and lighter for portability/backpacking. The lack of viewfinder would not be missed, as a large LCD and MF check is more useful when using a tripod anyways. It could be the perfect companion camera to the a850/900 or the planned a950 to come.
All I have to say is MAKE IT SONY.
Andrew
3 years ago |They could even make it look like that ugly brick in the drawing and I would still happily but it. It doesn’t need to be pretty, it just needs all the right tools in one simple package.
Ezio
3 years ago |is it possible for this to be a Alpha Mount medium format brick?
the patent may say “The present invention can provide a light-weight small-size digital camera.” But as above posters have already mentioned, this isn’t going to use E mount lenses cus of back focal distance, and A mount DSLT already have A55 and A33…
There is the third possibility that this patent is filed to make sure the competition dosn’t invent anything close to the A55/33
panfruit
3 years ago |Hard to see them being ablet o make any big money on a medium-format interchangable lens camera. How would they make a big money on that? hmmm (I would say where are the lenses for that, but I could say the same for E-mount…)
Ezio
3 years ago |give users medium format quality without the 10k price tag… (and since u have carl zeiss lenses), people will come.
Sky_walker
3 years ago |A-mount lenses don’t cover medium format, so it ain’t gonna happen.
emopunk
3 years ago |I wish manxtt12 and andrew would be right. Sony, make this monster. We would buy it on day one!
Leo
3 years ago |Is there some major problems with the integrated phase detection unit inside the sensor, seems Sony do not want to make that kind of camera.
Colamango
3 years ago |anyone knw about FIG.2
I`m no understand, liquid, Material Air
after optimize thickness will expand, look like organ(brother)…
what is that?
liquid Lens?
adi9
3 years ago |The patent is NOT about an SLT without a viewfinder ! ( how can you patent this). The imageis just use to help understand the concept:
This is the patentable idea:
”
In the present invention, when the autofocus auxiliary light is used, the returned light out of the autofocus auxiliary light can be reflected at a reflectivity higher than that of light having a different wavelength and guided to the autofocus detecting device. Furthermore, since the reflectivity to light having a wavelength longer than about 700 nm is set to be high, the incidence of light having such a wavelength on the image sensor can be suppressed, which provides the light-beam splitting mirror with a function of an infrared light filter. Thus, an additional infrared light filter is not necessary on the front surface or the like of the image sensor, which can reduce the cost and weight of the image pickup apparatus.
”
So using different light spectrum for autofocus and for the image itself.
This does not mean than Sony can not make in the future an SLT without viewfinder or a NEX with phase detection autofocus.
john
3 years ago |“This does not mean than Sony can not make in the future an SLT without viewfinder or a NEX with phase detection autofocus.”
Mirrorless with PDAF is the future for all mounts.
ET
3 years ago |Sorry SAR but you are wrong. Nex E-mount registeration distance is too small to put mirror inbetween!
hansen
3 years ago |I only need a new A700!!!!! Bevore they spend time on something like this, they should bring the successor of the A700 and some new FF DSLR’s.
TT
3 years ago |I don’t give a crap about 700 and it’s replacement.
Steve Long
3 years ago |I see a side benefit to Sony in this; by developing cameras like the recent A33, A55 and relying on new high technology and sensors will reduce manufacturing costs. Eliminating the viewfinder is the next logical step in this evolution.
The old SLR/DSRL is a magnificent mechanical device, with its mirrors prisms and shutters but very costly to make in the 21 century and Sony is all about mass production.
As long as it helps me make better pictures…….I can’t wait to see whats next.
Sky_walker
3 years ago |hehehe, I think that it’s waaaaaaayyyy too early to make cameras without viewfiner as primary photography tool – people love it too much. Maybe in next 30-40 years things will change but in first quarter of this century? I don’t think so.
duott
3 years ago |No, it’s just about time. Viewfinders shall be left where they belong, that is, in the 20th century.
shevko
3 years ago |Could this be a fixed lens bridge camera? Like the HX-1 line-up?
Not the A or E mount after all?
Sky_walker
3 years ago |Patent says that the lens will be interchangeable.
Colamango
3 years ago |lens look special, New Gen E-mount
Vlad
3 years ago |I don’t follow. What’s the point of a mirror if there’s no VF?
Chris
3 years ago |it is for the autofocus system.. because on sensor autofocus is still to slow..
in a couple of years they will probably really high speed on sensor autofocus.. but i still prefer a high quality viewfinder like in the alpha 850 (i do a lot of studio work)
hanugro
3 years ago |I think it is the A22 the sony A-mount compact entry level. Please put the proper a-mount flash shoe. My biggest concern with NEX is not enough power for the flash.
Ezio
3 years ago |why in the world would they make something below A33? The A55 outsells the A33 by a huge margin, and we know their strategy in the past with A2xx/3xx/3xx combos didn’t work so well.
If we are looking at the standard Sony strategy of throw mud on the wall until you see what sticks… well A55 sticks so its pointless. It can’t be a lower geared version of Axx series. Its not even worth the money it takes to patent this and then the upkeep cost to maintain the patent (THAT, being the financial side of this thing)
Abi
3 years ago |Well NEX mud is sticking so why don’t you combine both aspect of NEX and A55 then throw the hell it out and see what happens
Sky_walker
3 years ago |They will make the lower grade Axx camera, Ezio. They said it clearly that SLTs will takeover the market all the way till A700level (above it there will be only classical DSLRs, cause ATM optical viewfinder is much better at pro uses).
So – yes, most likely we gonna see at least one entry level SLT camera. Most likely end 2011 or early 2012 IMO, but that’s just a pure guess.
Zdrobot
3 years ago |A 33/55 without the EVF?
I really don’t see point here.
It still is not going to be pocketable, why bother?
Zdrobot
3 years ago |don’t see “THE point”
duott
3 years ago |to get rid of the viewfinder, which is not needed on a digital SLR
Rob
3 years ago |A hood/magnifier combination could easily be added to the back of this rig to give an “in-line” viewfinder. If the back panel lcd is great, then the view could be very competitive with an optical viewfinder. A mirror/rotating viewfinder could be attached to the end of the hood for those who want to look down or up while framing.